Good old days: Dec. 7, 2017

125 years ago

The Commoner

December 9, 1892

Mrs. J. A. Davis, owner of the Farmer's hotel property, recently destroyed by fire, intends rebuilding with bricks early in the spring. She will probably have a three story structure put up on the site, and devote the first story to business rooms and the upper floors to a good dollar-a-day hotel.

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The Colfax amateurs are drilling in a quiet way for a comic opera to be given in the early days of the new year. The city should have occasional amusements of its own, and the local amateurs in four cases out of five, could afford better entertainment than the average barnstorming troupe that comes for one night only. Colfax can boast plenty of talent and a dramatic company should be organized to while away the winter hours.

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The press of business due to the growth and progress of the city has induced many changes in local business houses to meet the increasing patronage.

A few years ago the merchants, in crowded quarters, kept their goods packed away, in a large measure, to economize space.

Times have changed.

Colfax has put on metropolitan airs.

Customers are on the rush and goods must necessarily be easy of access and easy to be seen.

The Colfax Mercantile Company has enlarged its store to twice its former proportions.

It now occupies nearly two-thirds of the ground floor of the Pioneer block, and the newly acquired space is already so completely stocked with goods that the customers might wonder how it was possible for them to keep their goods and conduct business in their former apartments.

100 years ago

The Colfax Commoner

December 7, 1917

Frank Hamilton and Walter Kelsey were arrested Monday by the county officials charged with abduction. The young men are charged with contributing to the delinquency of two minor girls, both residents of this city. One of the girls is less than seventeen years of age and the other is under eighteen years of age. The girls accompanied the men late Saturday night to Spokane where they were finally located at the Fairmont Hotel Monday afternoon.

As soon as the men learned that the officers were searching for them they deserted the girls and returned to Colfax and denied that they had ever seen the girls.The two men are musicians and they have been in the city only a short time.

***

Edward Kits and Braggs Pattee who were arrested about thirty days ago, charged with the unlawful sale of liquor, completed their jail sentence Wednesday and were released. The two men paid over to the county clerk the sum of $409.80 being the amount due to state in fines and cost of the suit. The men left in the afternoon for Spokane, and they stated that they were through with the liquor business.

75 years ago

The Gazette-Commoner

December 4, 1942

Mrs. Gladys Stairet was treated at St. Ignatius hospital for injuries suffered when a pickup driven by her father, J.M. (Mack) Lloyd, Steptoe farmer, and a car driven by J. M. Reeder, St. John., were in collision Saturday morning on the St. John road two miles west of Steptoe. Mrs. Stairet suffered lacerations on the neck and cheek and body bruises and her father, chest abrasions for which he was not hospitalized. Reeder was discharged Sunday from the Bryant and Weisman clinic, where he was treated for a nose cut. Reeder's accident report said the car, after making a turn onto the highway was on the wrong side of the road.

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Almota, on the banks of the Snake river, leaped into the limelight last week, put there by the community's four rural school children who topped the state's junior salvage army of thousands of youngsters in the autumn Schools for Salvage program.

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While cleaning mist from his windshield as he drove south on Morton street early Sunday morning, Lloyd Davis, 23, Colfax, drove his car into the parked car of Willie Lowe, Davis said in an accident report filed at the police station.

50 years ago

The Colfax Gazette

December 7, 1967

Marvin Moreland is in St. Luke's hospital, Spokane with a badly sprained wrist and multiple bruises sustained from a fall off a step ladder. Mark Gustin had the middle finger of his left hand cut off at the second joint and the pointer finger cut with a skill saw Saturday.

***

At a recent meeting of the Rosalia Lions, a guest from Vancouver, B.C., presented a new Canadian flag to the Rosalia group as a special friendship gesture. He gave a short history of the Canadian flag and told of the many experiences encountered in world-wide travel as a Lion.

25 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

December 10, 1992

Colfax residents Sunday morning found their downtown Christmas tree had crashed to the ground. Early accusations against The Grinch were retracted when tree attendants discovered welds on the metal stand had popped loose in the wind pressure.

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Residents who are hooked up to the Colfax City water and sewer services but live outside the city boundaries Monday night protested a move by the city to tack an additional 50 percent fee onto their water and sewer bills. The proposal has been made by city officials as an outgrowth of the budget progress.

10 years ago

Whitman County Gazette

December 6, 2007

Rebecca and Steven Hovey of Orofino, who formerly operated Becky's Burgers in Colfax, have sold the property to Garry and Karin Fowler of Post Falls. The Fowlers operate Zip's Drive-ins in Idaho and plan to remodel the building into a Zip's, according to Gary Fowler.